It is uncertain when the
Inuit first started venturing into Disko Bay, but the
Saqqaq were present there between 2400 and 900 BC. Disko Bay has been an important location for centuries. Its coastline was first encountered by Europeans when
Erik the Red started a settlement in 985 AD on the more habitable western coast of Greenland.
seals for their pelts, and
whales for a variety of materials. These products became the main source of income for the Greenlandic settlers who traded with Iceland, the British Isles, and mainland Europe. report fighting and massacres on both sides. However, the primary reason for the abandonment of the Greenlandic settlements was the advent of the
Little Ice Age that started in the 15th century. There was such an extreme shift in temperature that Disko Bay became inaccessible even in the warmer summer months, thereby destroying the livelihood of the Greenlandic Norse. Even the Eastern settlement, which was below the
Arctic Circle, became too cold for habitation. From that time until
Danish colonization in the 18th century, the Inuit controlled the Disko Bay area although English and Dutch whalers sometimes visited the area after it was charted during
John Davis's third Greenland expedition in 1587. ==Geography==